A blog about books and publishing, aimed at both readers and writers.
Listed by the Guardian in 2005 as one of the top ten literary blogs.

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Authors' money

Last week I suggested that the supermarkets, among other market forces, would gradually bring about a reduction in the overall remuneration of writers -- however that remuneration was calculated, whether on a royalty basis or as a percentage of net receipts.

Well, some writers, pointing to their scars and bruises, would ruefully argue that such reductions have already been made, and I would not disagree. What I would say is that there is probably more to come.

Joel Rickett's latest missive on the current news from the publishing world (in the Guardian, via booktrade.info), reports that Tesco is running an ad campaign boasting about how it has driven book prices steadily downwards. (Tesco is, I think, the biggest UK supermarket chain and certainly makes massive profits.)

Tesco will runs ads in women's magazines saying the following: 'Books. Once upon a time they seemed pricey. So we decided to sell them cheaply. Er - the end.'

Lovely, isn't it? So short. So to the point. So, no doubt, effective.

The remaining small independent booksellers will not be pleased. In the UK (unlike the USA, I believe), publishers can give different discount deals to different customers. Thus the supermarkets are able to negotiate massive discounts on the retail price in return for massive purchases. Small bookshops, which buy perhaps six copies, can't get anything like as good a deal.

What this means is that it is sometimes cheaper (and quicker) for a small bookseller to buy stock from the local supermarket than it is for him to go through the usual trade channels.

4 comments:

Since the sixties I've always been one to thumb through the books in the supermarket and purchase some, although not at much of a discount.

I'm not sure the books are any better or worse today, but I guess there's a certain air about tossing the latest best-seller in with your case of toilet tissue and cat litter. In the end, they go to the same trash can.

I did a round the world trip a few years back and so I ended up shopping for books in quite a few different countries and I have to say that the UK does pretty well price-wise. Books are far from expensive here, especially compared to overseas.

I would worry that this is depriving authors of income, but as the supermarkets tend to only stock bestsellers, I doubt the amount is missed and is possibly made up for by the increased publicity and sales.

Hi i am totally blown away with the blogs people have created its so much fun to read alot of good info and you have also one of the best blogs !! Have some time check my link to !!Make money on the web

Text size

If you find that the text of this blog is either too small or too large for easy reading, you can alter the size of the font in your browser controls. Alternatively, press the CTRL key and roll the mouse wheel forward or back.

Search the GOB

A 'search this blog' facility is available at the top left of the page. Unfortunately, it doesn't work very well. For a quick and dirty search, it might do. The only really satisfactory way to find anything on this blog is go to the main Google search page, enter the terms you wish to search for (using the usual double inverted commas around complete phrases, names, et cetera), and then type, without spaces, the word site, colon, and URL of the blog, without the www. and without spaces. This procedure is the one that I use when the built-in search device tells me that I haven't written about something when I know damn well that I have.